1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solar cell and its method of manufacture, and more particularly to a system and method for manufacturing thin-film solar cells on a large area substrate using a laser scribing technique.
2. Description of Related Art
Thin-film solar cells having monolithic series interconnections can be formed by using scribing lasers or mechanical structuring. Mechanical structuring can include photolithographic or chemical etching structuring. The structuring is useful to form photovoltaic (PV) modules or “arrays”. These concepts allow the PV modules to be adapted to the desired output characteristics—Voc (open circuit voltage), Isc (short-circuit-current) and FF (fill factor—defined as the maximum power produced at the maximum power point, divided by the product of Isc and Voc, which is always less than 1). Thus, these features can be specifically tailored to the needs/applications of the user.
It is known to form solar cells on a substrate and to use a laser scribing technique in the manufacture of such solar cells. A method of manufacturing solar cells using scribing lasers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,092, which is incorporated herein by reference. A method of manufacturing solar cells using scribing lasers is also disclosed in U.S. patent application publication number US 2005/0272175 A1, which is incorporated herein by reference.